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Longmont City Council eyes ordinance regulating short-term rentals

50 or more residential properties already being rented to visitors

By John Fryar

Staff Writer

Posted:
11/26/2017 11:00:00 AM MST

Updated:
11/26/2017 01:37:42 PM MST

Longmont short-term rentals survey responses

Longmont's staff questioned residents, neighborhood group leaders, interested property owners and several organizations earlier this year about whether the city should permit short-term rentals, and under what conditions. Some of the questions, and the 330 responses the city got in its survey:

Should short-term rentals be considered in any area where residential uses are allowed? 85 percent "Yes," 8 percent "No," 7 percent "Unsure or No Opinion"

Should short-term rentals be considered in both owner-occupied ... and investment properties? 64 percent "Yes," 26 percent "No," 10 percent "Unsure or No Opinion"

If short-term rentals are allowed, what areas should the city consider regulating? (Percentages of respondents agreeing with each area): Number of occupants, 58 percent; require safety inspections, 45 percent; parking, 53 percent; limit on rental frequency, 28 percent; limit on concentration of rentals, 30 percent.

It would finally become legal for owners of Longmont homes to rent all or part of their homes to visitors staying there for short periods of time, under an ordinance up for an initial City Council vote on Tuesday night.

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While such short-term rentals are already going on — and while Longmont's staff has estimated there to be as many as 50 or more such residential properties being rented to vacationers and others now — the city's current Land Use Development Code neither expressly forbids nor specifically allows them.

The measure scheduled for council consideration would allow the rental of an entire dwelling, or an individual room in an owner-occupied dwelling, to be rented for stays of up to 30 days per guest or group of guests, as long as the property owner gets a temporary use permit and a Longmont sales and use tax license and meets conditions and standards the proposed ordinance spells out for such short-term and vacation rentals.

Short-term renters would have to pay Longmont's 2 percent lodging tax, as well as the city's municipal sales and use tax, on what the homeowners are charging for the stays.

Longmont's current 3.275 percent sales and use tax rate will increase to 3.53 percent on Jan. 1 after voters approved a hike to help pay for hiring and equipping additional police, fire and public safety personnel. The lodging tax, which Longmont's hotels and motels already collect on their room rentals, will remain at the 2 percent rate

Charging short-term renters the lodging and sales taxes that people staying in conventional hotels has been one of the arguments that Visit Longmont, an organization that promotes the city to tourists, businesses travelers and other visitors, has made for adopting a short-term-rentals ordinance.

Under the proposed ordinance, short-term rentals would be allowed in all zoning districts that allow residential dwellings. The short-term rentals would not be subject to requirements for how far away one such property would to be located from another short-term rental property, and the ordinance would not set a limit on the number of short-term rentals that could operate within a geographic area of Longmont.

The ordinance would not set a maximum number of days a home or part of a home could be rented out during a calendar year.

Owners of both owner-occupied properties or investor-owned properties could rent out entire dwellings for short terms, but the short-term rentals of individual rooms within a home would be limited to owner-occupied properties.

The ordinance would set a limit of two persons per bedroom, plus two additional people.

No additional parking would be required for short-term rental properties beyond what the city already requires for the dwelling unit. No exterior advertising signs would be allowed on the short-term rental property.

No short-term rentals of apartments or groups of apartments in multi-family buildings would be allowed, unless the apartment unit's owner lives in the unit most of the year.

If the City Council gives preliminary approval to the short-term rentals ordinance on Tuesday, it would be scheduled for a public hearing and possible final council action on Dec. 12.

The short-term-rentals ordinance is one of the items on the agenda of the Longmont's council's regular- session meeting that starts as 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Civic Center council chambers, 350 Kimbark St. The full agenda, along with staff memos about the items up for consideration, can be viewed through a link at tinyurl.com/yc52lz9c

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